Ever been to a nice house, gone into the bathroom, and thought, “DAMN, I wish I could shower in here every day”? There are ways to make your mediocre shower a little more awesome—or at least a little less grouty.

Curved curtain rod

If you’ve got a tiny shower, consider getting a curved curtain rod; it will bow out away from you, giving you more space. Even if you don’t have a small shower, the curved rod looks somehow…classier, and will keep your curtain from getting quite as much soap buildup.

Speaking of shower curtains, get a decent one. Rather than buy the cheapest model, a thin film of plastic, go nuts!: get the third cheapest one, cotton or something similarly durable and attractive. You might actually have to wash it once in a while, too, preferably with vinegar.

Showerhead

One quick way to amp up a lackluster shower is to get a new showerhead. A filtered model will take out chemicals like sulfur and chlorine, as well as the hard minerals that create more buildup on top of the soap. Plus, there’s that whole water pressure thing, which a showerhead can help with—somewhat.

Towel bar

Ever watched the TV show New Girl? They focused an entire episode on the hazard of damp towels, towel hooks, and, unrelatedly, roommates who don’t remember whose towels are whose. The moral of the story—other than keep your own towels straight—is that a towel bar will allow your towel to dry a heck of a lot faster than a hook. And then you can have that luxurious, fluffed-hotel-towel feeling every time you step out of the shower.

Clean up

Nothing screams I’m Not a Luxurious Shower like a constant film of scum and dirty grout. You can scrub down all the tiles, but you might eventually want to re-grout between them. If you’re especially lazy, you can cheat, either by buying what’s effectively a grout marker at the hardware store, or by grouting on top of your old grout (rather than ripping it out).

Install some shelves

Retile

Looking to really revamp? Try retiling the whole shower. It will be more labor and time intensive than any other project, but if you own your own house, you could substantially increase its value. And it doesn’t have to be TOO expensive.

Deprive yourself

Don’t take a super long, steamy shower every day. For one thing, you’ll dry out your skin. For another, you’ll run up your gas bill. But most relevantly, you’ll love the heck out of your shower if it’s been a while since you’ve pampered yourself.

Take a beer

If all else fails, indulge in a shower beer. Just don’t indulge in three and then slip and die. Cold beer, hot water, and a boom-box (if you’re old school) or a really good Pandora station (if you’re not). Now that’s a good shower.

If you have any other advice for making (or keeping) your shower awesome, let us know on Facebook!